Memory
by jmstarchild
Summary: One shot. Dib is a councilor and he is assigned to meet with a student, but why is it hard on him? ZADR if you squint.


[[I saw a really lovely sketch with Dib wearing a tie and then it turned into this. At first Dib was going to be a businessman but then...]]

The already-small room he was assigned to as the councilor felt even more constricted as he mentally attempted to prepare himself for who he was supposed to meet. After so many years he still wasn't prepared to deal with kids. Dib adjusted his tie and sighed, gathering the ever-growing file on this 'Zim' kid and sitting down at his office desk. There had been complaints. Not from the kid, but from other students.

'Zim is an alien.'

'Zim is weird.'

'Zim doesn't fit in.'

'Zim does creepy experiments.'

Etcetera.

Dib felt a migraine come on as he continued reading the statements and accusations. He wouldn't have decided to take on the student if it weren't for the teacher, Mrs. Bitters, coming to him (well, more like appearing out of the shadows) to order that he study the boy because he was giving her the wibblies. This was coming from a woman who gave everyone, even him, the wibblies. Especially since she was once HIS OWN teacher at one point, and she hadn't aged ever since. Rumor was that she was immortal. Dib wouldn't doubt it.

Seeing a kid that people assumed was an alien was something Dib wasn't the least bit prepared for. He wondered why such a kid would bring about such accusations from others. Aliens weren't real. At one time, he thought they were, he even thought he saw one when he was little. Years of therapy and staying at an asylum taught him better. He thanked his father for being so concerned and caring. They definitely weren't real.

Something in the back of his mind made his eye twitch.

His back straightened when the there was a knock on the door, Dib placed his hands flat on the table before deciding to fold them, his thumbs fumbling together before he forced them to remain still. "Come in." He announced, deciding to face his curiosity.

What entered made his mouth feel dry. He swallowed and his eye twitched again, seeing a flash of what was once a memory. In front of him was the kid, this famous Zim kids and teachers spoke of. Black hair, violet eyes…. Green skin...

The boy had stopped when he saw the councilor before him as well, staring straight at him with wide eyes before he shook himself back to reality.

Dib noticed that and frowned curiously. The more he looked at Zim the more that flash of memory came back, tugging at the back of his brain. Dib winced and mentally tore himself back into now. He waited until the boy sat down and coughed, "So you're Zim, the foreign exchange student they're talking about?" He put on his best fake smile and folded his hands together again, not realizing that they were gripping the table just now.

Zim stayed silent, still staring at him. He looked to be growing impatient.

Dib ignored that and went though the files that were open on his desk, "The students have been saying some things about you, do you have knowledge of this?" He looked from the papers to Zim and his jaw dropped then. "W-w-what are you—" His eye began to twitch again.

Zim was taking off his EYES, or—no, not his eyes—but, contacts? His eyes were red now, taking over the entire eye. The flashes in Dib's head began to come back, and Dib couldn't help but grab at his head and cry out. They weren't memories, they were figments of a diseased mind!

"Dib."

Zim spoke, but there was a metallic edge to his tone. It triggered something in Dib and he felt his brain explode from inside of him, a lock that shattered and released all of his memories that were deemed figments.

His childhood, chasing strange creatures, getting lost in the woods, meeting a glowing spaceship, meeting-

Playing with that alien, laughing, fighting, teasing, talking, secrets, secrets that didn't stay secret, he was so excited. He told his dad, he wanted someone to know! His father was angry, alarmed, Dib was taken away then, facing a white room, being talked to by specialists, tested on, electric shocks, the pain. He didn't meet an alien, no they weren't true memories, he was just pretending. There was so such thing as aliens.

But an alien was sitting in front of him, waiting. No, no there was no such thing.

"Do you know how many places of filth I had to infiltrate to find you?" The alien spoke again, the sharp and alluring notes to his words drawing him of his manic state. Dib was wide eyed and in shock, staring quietly at Zim and shaking his head slowly, not knowing why he was saying what he was saying.

"…and here I go making a big show about being different to get here and THERE you are and you don't remember ZIM?" The alien looked offended, but soon sluffed it off and climbed on the table. "YOU—Dib monkey, I've returned to fulfil your dreams!" He walked over his own files to grab Dib on either side of his head, tilting it up. Dib was helpless to stop him, still in the stasis of shock. "You human were the only one that sparked my interest back as a smeetling. Now I'm here to whisk you away, and so forth."

This had to be another illusion, another figment of his imagination. Dib was being touched, though. How can figments touch? How can figments be so real that you could feel the breath on your own cheek?

Dib stared up into the alien's gaze and swallowed again, suddenly looking worn out mentally. "Are you real?"

Zim slapped him.

"Can something not real cause you pain?" He hissed, grabbing at Dib's hair by its scythe and pulling his head upright. "What did these humans do to you?"

Dib's eye twitched again and Zim caught it, staring at him incredulously before his own eyes flashed in rage. "They found out." He realized, "They found out and altered you and now you're one of them." His antennae twitched in irritation at that and he let go of Dib's hair, "No matter. Zim will fix you."

Zim reached down and grabbed Dib by his tie, dragging Dib forward until the male was fully on the table. Zim pinned him there, using his spider-legs to pin the other's clothes to the desk and reached over to the back of his pak, pulling out a small holographic pad and pressing a few buttons.

Dib was freaking out. Screaming when the metal appendages appeared from the 'backpack' of the one before him and nearly stabbing him into the desk, keeping him trapped there. Before he could even exhale the roof of the school was blasted off, revealing a purple and violet ship that was hovering over them, lowering into the hole and the bottom opening up.

A bright yellow light engulfed the both of them as Zim's spider-like appendages released Dib. "Come and fulfil the dream you spoke of with Zim."

Dib watched him, his eyes flickering up to the ship and back at him, twitching again as he finally remembered…

_A young Dib was rocking on his heels, still quite amazed and happy with the secret he had discovered a week ago. "Everyone thinks I'm weird and I don't like it here, can you take me with you someday?" He grinned toothily at Zim, who still regarded the boy with slight amusement. "I wanna travel and see everything out there!"_

_The alien chuckled and tapped his chin in thought, "Maybe, perhaps when you aren't a smeetling. Zim will show you everything there is in space."_

"_Yay!" The child giggled, taking his coat by the ends and running around, as if he was flying. "I'm gonna see space with a real life alien!"_

"Dib?" Zim broke him out of his memory, holding out his hand.

Dib stared at Zim, his hand taking the others and gripping tightly. "Thank you for remembering."

The beam lifted them up and soon the ship was gone, leaving a hole in the office roof and papers flying everywhere.


End file.
